Grind Quest: Information Structures

    In any type of game, whatever the style, the player must be given some form of information.  Whether it be an RPG, or a simple board game like checkers, information is going to be given to the player in some form.  How this information is given to the player can be interpreted very differently from one game to the next.  In class, we learned that throughout games, there are four different styles of styles in which the information can be presented to the player.  These styles are: open, hidden, mixed and dynamic.  Over the course of this blog post, I will be going through a few popular games and the types of information styles used in each.

    The first game on the list is Ubisoft's hit 2012 title, Far Cry 3.  Far Cry 3 places the main character on an island surrounded by a private militia that is out to kill you.  Throughout the game, the player acquires and learns how to use different weapons, while gaining help from the local tribesman.  This FPS is action packed from start to finish and allows the player to adopt a style that suits them, whether it be up front guns blazing, or stealthy assassinations.  While recently playing through Far Cry 3, I came to the conclusion that the information given to the player definitely adopts the dynamic style.  This is because the player starts of with only a small amount of knowledge in terms of the island, the enemies, and how they plan to escape to the safety of the mainland.  As the gameplay presses on however, many things are revealed to the player, such as the skills they can learn, the boat they can use to try and escape, and the identity of the criminal mastermind, hellbent on keeping you trapped on the island. The game also uses the dynamic information structure through the in game map system.  At the beginning of the game, there is a type of fog over areas of the map that the character has yet to explore.  Upon visiting these areas however, the player will reveal locations and hidden items, gaining this knowledge at their own pace.

By far, the craziest character I have encountered in a video game.

    The second game on the list is Minecraft.  The simplistic game that has taken the world by storm since creator Notch released it back 2011 (Full release).  I have put my fair share of time into this game and I can confidently say that Minecraft presents its information in a very open way.  This is because from the very beginning of the game, everything is available to the player with no need to "unlock" their rewards.  The player will have to put some effort into retrieving some of the harder minerals, but at no point is a restriction put on the player.  If they have the required items/materials, they can build whatever their heart desires.  In the same sense as the materials, the game world is open for the player to explore.  There are no level restrictions for certain areas, and the player does not need to explore for items before they can accomplish a certain task.  The world is completely open to the players imagination, just like the information system.

With a game world bigger than Earth! Yeah, the possibilities are endless.

      Next up on our list of game information structures is the 2007 hit game Uncharted.  This game is a 3rd person over the shoulder action adventure game, where the player must help Nathan Drake seek out the lost treasure of El Dorado.  This game, I feel embodies a dynamic information structure, similar to the Far Cry 3 game.  I believe this to be true because the character starts out with only a small fragment of how the story is going to progress.  Only through playing the game and traversing the different levels, can the player really learn how he will be attempting to claim the treasure.  This embodies the dynamic structure of information because the player has an ever changing knowledge of some of the key elements in the game.  It does not stay consistent and the only way to gain all of the knowledge is to play until the games end.

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    Madden NFL 13 brings up odd feelings when it comes to reviewing it and the information structures contained.  Having grown up with sports games, and now learning of how information is presented to players, I think I can safely say that Madden 13 portrays a very mixed information structure.  This is mainly portrayed in the style that Madden uses to choose the plays.  Although the player will have no idea what sort of route or moves the opposing team is going to attempt, they can still gain a fair bit of knowledge by examining how the players on the other team are lined up.  At certain times, the player is able to make a hypothesis on whether or not the opposing team will rush, simply by noticing the two linebackers moving towards the line of scrimmage.  This portrays the mixed information structure quite well, as the player is not given all of the information about the opposing team, but based on player movements they make some educated guesses as to what the opposing team might be up too.

Oh the nostalgia of my old gaming days

    Lemmings is a classic puzzle platforming game released way back in the golden age of 1991.  Being that it was release before I was born and since I have not played this game since I was 8, my knowledge is a little rusty.  After a little research however, the memories came flooding back and I remembered how the gameplay worked.  With this newly re-discovered knowledge, I was able to deduce that the information structures in Lemmings was very open.  At the beginning of each level, the player is given a starting point, an end point, and a certain amount of unique lemmings that they need to guide towards the exit.  This type of play-style makes the game very open, as nothing is hidden at any point in the level from the character.  All of the information they could need is presented to the player, with little being left to the imagination.  Although certain lemmings may be unusable at that point, the character still knows that they exist and what abilities they have.

Has it really been that long? I should really find a copy somewhere!

    Next up on the list is a combo paragraph.  We are going to change the flow of this blog, as we will be examining board games from here on out.  The board games that will be examined here are Scrabble and Clue.  I decided to combine both of these games, as I find that they both demonstrate the mixed style of information presentation.  Scrabble portrays this information style because even though the players keep all of their individual block hidden from the other players,  the board will all letters used is still visible to every other player.  The players also know that their opponents have to have some letters from the alphabet hidden, and can then make educated guesses as to what words they may attempt next.  Clue works in a mixed style as well because each player is allowed to listen in on the other characters guesses and make guesses as to what the location, person and murder weapon may be.  By playing off of your opponents, not all of the information is hidden at any point in the game.  

    Finally, we come to Battleship.  This is one of the few games that I feel keeps a hidden information system throughout the majority of the game.  This is because in order to win the game, the player must make random guesses as to where the enemy has placed their boats on a grid system.  The hidden aspect of this game is present throughout, but even when the player obtains a hit on the enemy boat, they still are not given much information on the boats exact whereabouts.  For example, if the enemy placed one of their boats on B2, 3, and 4, even if the player obtains a hit on B4, they still are not sure if they will score a hit if they guess B3, C4, B5, or A4. This type of hidden feedback means that until the character has fully destroyed an enemy ship, they can not be 100% certain where the next shot needs to be fired.  

Great game, not so great movie!